Matt Waite: How I faced my fears and learned to be good at math

Somewhere in middle school, I had convinced myself that I was bad at math. It was okay: My mom was bad at math too. So were lots of people I looked up to. “Bad at math” was a thing — probably even genetic — and it was okay.

I so thoroughly convinced myself that I was bad at math that I very nearly didn’t graduate from high school. It took tutors and hours a week to squeak through an advanced algebra class my friends had all breezed through on their way to much harder classes.

But it was okay. I was bad at math. They weren’t. Simple as that.

And it was all a lie.

“Bad at math” is a lie you tell yourself to make failure at math hurt less. That’s all it is. Professors Miles Kimball and Noah Smith wrote in The Atlantic that many of us faced a moment in our lives where we entered a math class that some of us were prepared for and some of us weren’t. Those that got it right away were “good at math” and those who didn’t, well, weren’t. Or so we believed. Those who were good kept working to stay good, and those of us who were bad at it believed the lie.

Now, Kimball and Smith write that bad at math is “the most self-destructive idea in America today.”

Well, Professors Kimball and Smith, welcome to journalism, where “bad at math” isn’t just a destructive idea — it’s a badge of honor. It’s your admission to the club. It’s woven into the very fabric of identity as a journalist.

And it’s a destructive lie. One I would say most journalists believe. It’s a lie that may well be a lurking variable in the death of journalism’s institutions.

Name me a hot growth area in journalism and I’ll show you an area in desperate need of people who can do a bit of math. Data. Programming. Visualization. It’s telling that most of the effort now is around recruiting people from outside journalism to do these things.

But it doesn’t end there. Name me a place where journalism needs help, and I’ll show you more places where math is a daily need: analytics, product development, market analysis. All “business side” jobs, right? Not anymore.

Truth is, “bad at math” was never a good thing in journalism, even when things like data and analytics weren’t a part of the job. Covering a city budget? It’s shameful how many newsroom creatures can’t calculate percent change. Covering sports? It’s embarrassing how many sports writers dismiss the gigantic leaps forward in data analysis in all sports as “nerd stuff.”

In short, we’ve created a culture where ignorance of a subject is not only accepted, it’s glorified. Ha ha! Journalists are bad at math! Fire is hot and water is wet too!

I’m not going to tell you how to get good at math by giving you links to online materials or MOOCs or whatever. I’m not. You can Google. You should do that. No, I’m going to tell you a story.

Through grit and luck and a Hail Mary pass of a grade on a final exam, I did graduate from high school. And in 1993 I went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the time said the curricular equivalent of “Math? Why the hell do you need math?” I thought this was great. No math? I must be in heaven.

Twenty years later, I’m now a professor in that same journalism school that let me skip out of math. We don’t do that anymore, but our math requirements are pretty thin and universally reviled by students, most of whom would say they’re bad at math. As a professor, I can take classes for free. And it’s abundantly obvious to me that journalism’s problems aren’t with journalism — they’re about money. Where does one go to learn about money? Business school.

So I thought I would get an MBA to better understand the business side of journalism. I walked over to the business college and told them I wanted to do this. “Have you had calculus as an undergrad?” Oh. Uh, no. “Have to have it. It’s an admission requirement.”

So almost two decades to the day that I set foot on campus, there I was, taking a math placement exam. This exam is given to all incoming freshmen to determine which math class they should start with. I took it and could barely read the questions. If they had given me a grade, I would have bombed it. I tested straight into a remedial math class for students who didn’t get enough in high school. Congrats, Math Department: Your test nailed it.

I probably could have crammed and watched Khan Academy videos for hours, taken it again, and landed in a higher math class. But I would have felt like I cheated my way in. And that would have been terrifying. So, I took the class. Math 100A. Just a 37-year-old professor and 30 or so 18-year-old freshmen. Totally normal; I didn’t stick out at all. The instructor was in first grade when I was last in a math class. She asked me what I was doing there. Told her my story. Her reaction: She was bad at math too, until she got to college. Now, she’s getting a Ph.D. in it.

Given all that, I lived in absolute terror that I wouldn’t do well. I sat in the front row. I asked questions non-stop. I did all the homework. I did extra practice problems. I raised my hand to answer questions so much the instructor asked me to stop. I studied for hours.

And I got an A+. I was shocked. And elated. In spite of the fact that I’m a grownup and should get an A in a remedial course, I was pumped up. I can’t remember my last A in math.

On to the next class. Math 101: College Algebra. Just the name gave me chills. I could barely pass high school algebra; how the hell was I going to handle college algebra? Here I was, a grown man with a family and a house and a job and a resume, sweating bullets and losing sleep about a class freshmen take.

Same plan, same result: Work hard, get A+.

I’m halfway through calculus this semester. I have never in my life worked this hard in a class. I’ve never sat awake at night worrying about a class like I have tossing and turning thinking about how to calculate the derivative of something. I can go speak in front of 1,000 people with less than five minutes of preparation and be downright calm compared to the feeling I have going to take a test.

Right now, I’ve got a B+. And if I walk out of there with it, it’ll easily be the most proud of a grade I’ll ever have been.

Why? Because at this level, I’m seeing the consequences of how a student approaches math. On each test, the median score has been around a high F or a low D. The last test saw more than half the class fail. It’s brutal. Of the 111 students in the class, I’m guessing 70 of them will be taking it again.

The only advantage I have over my classmates? I know exactly how to fail at math: Don’t put any effort in. Blow it off. Do something else. A glass of wine and a rerun of Big Bang Theory kicks the crap out of applications of extrema using derivatives, even if you hate wine and loathe Big Bang Theory.

So do me a favor: Try. Stop with the jokes. Stop telling me, “Oh, I could never do that” when you ask me about math. Because it’s not true. You can. If you try.

You can be good at math.

Matt Waite is a professor of practice at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Previously, he was senior news technologist at the St. Petersburg Times, where he was the principal developer of the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact.

While I agree that perseverance is usually the way to surmount such obstacles, it is imperative that we look at how programs such as MTT math are failing our students. I myself returned to college because I believed everything you presented in your piece, I am a good student. I have an L.D. in math because of problems with my spatial memory. This has been confirmed in two Psych. tests and in no way have I tried to use this as an excuse. I was placed in remedial math at N.V.C.C. The program which the college has partnered with Pearson labs on is a sham. Students are expected to teach themselves on-line, without lectures and only the help of peer tutors.I have worked my butt off but have been stuck on the same unit through no fault of my own. It is not always the student who is failing, perhaps there are times when the system fails him or her!

anon

I do try. So Frigle fraging hard. But go ahead and admire the big shiny F right next to math on my report card. Oh yah! failure party time!

ArchangelEugenio

The willingness to sit in a class with younger students was inspiring. However, the suggestion that viewing hundreds of Khan videos in advance would be “cheating” is very misleading. The best students are usually self-taught and self-motivated. In fact there is so much help out there online these days that it has lowered the unnecessary barriers to calculus that professors love. One of things that should be used to lower fear is to let people know the amount of help available on youtube, etc. I have found videos often give you an easy intuition about a difficult area that helps you quickly interpret the highly abstract intros of textbooks. It has helped me get better at the abstract stuff.
Learning on your own instead of waiting until you get to class and drinking from the firehouse also fosters a love of the subject. Your grit-your-teeth approach is necessary at the college level, since the goal there is simply survival of the fittest. But I suspect somewhere in the patting yourself on the back for your hard work, you have also developed a bit of love for the subject.

Celina

I would say even computer scientists are some of the best writers out there. Applying scientific theory to an essentially functional piece of writing (“code”) tends to lay out everything neatly, concisely, and effectively. People then take these skills with them into their liberal arts classes, where their theses and prose comes out much stronger than their peers.

Rebecca Moody

Big bang theory

hoosiercommonsense

Welcome to the real world of work, where you’re evaluated on real results and your boss’s judgment of your efforts. You may not be interested in your job either, but your boss doesn’t care. Your boss is interested in your results. The difference in math over some other subjects is that you really have to do the work over and over until you get the correct results.

hoosiercommonsense

Common Core methods address exactly this, yet Indiana has turned its back on the whole thing, thinking, as the Repubs have told parents, that it’s a socialist plot or something to control their children. Nuts.

And now, the state has decided not to pay teachers extra for getting masters’ and doctoral degrees. Not necessary just to teach kids. This state is 20 years behind the times and likes it that way.

Chia Stockwell

That is very poetic!

babybluable .

This is very inspirational, Im currently taking an essential 11 math class because I’ve given up on math! I want to pursue a degree in business and this article has inspired me to want to train myself for advanced math. Thank you so much.

babyrules

OH MY GOD! This was so inspiring… I’m 17 and I’m going into college this year with a plan of going into Computer Science, and I have always been bad at math…
But now, after reading this, I know it’s a lie, and I can do math very VERY WELL… I just got to give it my best shot :)

This is an interesting article, but I think you have more research to do: there is a very real math-related learning disability called dyscalculia. Like dyslexia, it can be overcome – but we are just learning tools to figure out how to do that (NWU is doing an MRI study for students who have this disability.)

I don’t think it’s a safe assumption that everyone who is “bad at math” just has to put the hours in to do better – but that said, sometimes putting in the hours is how you find the work-around for your particular neurology. That is neither extra effort or magically “being good at it,” it’s respecting one’s own unique needs.

It doesn’t really help anybody to posit that people who genuinely struggle with something are really being lazy.

Guest

I’m crying. I’m a student who hasn’t gotten an A since ages and I recently got a test back that should of gone better but didn’t, but seeing you say that only hard work is needed is so inspiring. Seven hells, thank you.

Mari Scott

It wasn’t a lack of hard work for me, it was my parents never looking at a report card to see where I was failing and that I needed help.
How’s about YOU stop looping all women/girls into the same stereotype? Unless you meant we stop letting my parents off the hook? Little late now. Or unless you meant teachers who have been proven to treat females in math classes differently than males.

Mari Scott

Insecure? I was “given” my math phobia by a teacher that laughed at my wrong answers when I was in the third grade. It wasn’t insecurity, it was not having a clue as to whom to go to for help. Many years later, I kept at college algebra til I passed it – after 4 tries. I wasn’t insecure, I just needed better teachers and patience with myself. I am still terrible at math and cannot understand algebra now.

Marshie

I am in the same position, my bad math goes way back, never mastering times tables, mental math of all sorts is a mess. I need to go back and take math because physics is a pre requisite. I live remote, I am not sure how i will do it. Anyone who can suggest a good online course i will gladly look into. I have not been able to find one that goes back to back to basics (beginner algebra) I need help to see numbers a different way than what I currently know.

Marshie

i worked hard in school too, i was drowning and no one was helping me bail the water out. I eventually fell too far behind and gave up. When i told my dad i needed physics for a pre requisite recently he laughed ( i am mature age student now). Because I am “bad at math”

You didn’t read what I wrote. I worked hard. I never said you or anyone else didn’t. You are projecting onto me. Your last sentence was exactly what I meant but you threw it in as an aside, why? Why would you attack a stranger who only shared her own story? Self reflection is a good nect step. Lashing out at other women is never the answer.

Yesenia Garcia Alvarez

This made me tear up a little bit. My goal in life is to be a forensic pathologist and every time I see anything over the subject my eyes light up and I obsess over it. I’ve been led to believe that I will never be good at math but this article gave me hope and motivation to try harder. I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I didn’t. Thank you.

Cyphrinfinity

I was good at math – until grade 10 geometry. Now I can’t do elementary school fractions – and Algebra – which I got As on in 9th grade – I can’t get any of them right!!! And I’m trying too. I take test after test, and I still can’t get them right. I don’t even know how to do them anymore!!! I don’t technically need it nor do I need French – but every few years I try each (Math and French) to try to learn them – and each time I try and practice I am unsuccessful!!!

Waite, M. (2013, Nov. 13). Matt Waite: How I faced my fears and learned to be good at math. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved August 18, 2017, from http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/11/matt-waite-how-i-faced-my-fears-and-learned-to-be-good-at-math/

Chicago

Waite, Matt. "Matt Waite: How I faced my fears and learned to be good at math." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified November 13, 2013. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/11/matt-waite-how-i-faced-my-fears-and-learned-to-be-good-at-math/.